The 3rd annual Canberra Games Festival will celebrate the positive contribution that interactive entertainment has made to the lives of countless Australian gamers.

Held from July 18 to 31, the festival's theme of Culture-Art-Identity recognises the growing acceptance of games as both popular entertainment and artistic medium.

Festival highlights include Quake 4, Warcraft 3, Battlefield 2 and Counter Strike competitions, free schools events, an open day at the Academy of Interactive Entertainment and a free game trivia night.

Organiser Peter Henderson says the festival's aims include celebrating games and gaming culture, promoting electronic games as a positive form of entertainment and reducing misconceptions about the games development industry.

Australians will be unable to play the upcoming Reservoir Dogs game after it was refused classification by the OFLC.

An OFLC media release states: "The Classification Board made this decision on the basis that Reservoir Dogs contains frequent depictions of violence that have a high impact. As such, the computer game cannot be accommodated at the MA 15+ classification and must be Refused Classification."

The board listed examples of the high-impact material, like players being able to torture and blow the heads of hostages and police, plus slow-motion shoot-outs.

Games are a unique art form entertaining and enriching the lives of countless millions of players the world, yet often receive condemnation from people who have never touched a joypad.

As I have written before, the generation gap can be relied upon to produce criticism based upon ignorance or the shock of the new.

Games are in good company as the most recent scapegoat for society's ills - rock 'n roll, movies, comics, television and even books have received similar condemnation in the past.

Screen Play was impressed by the intelligent comment piece on the weekend by Brett Hutchins, a lecturer in new media at Monash University.

The paragraph that stood out was this: "The most visible representatives of this subculture - young, male gamers - are among the least likely to offer an articulate, considered public defence of their chosen activity and the industry that underpins it."

Despite the success of Tantalus' Top Gear Rally, widely regarded as one of the best racing games on GBA, CEO Tom Crago says it was an incredibly difficult task to find a partner willing to release the self-funded Trick Star.

"It really is very close to impossible. The GBA business, more than perhaps any other platform, has been driven by licenses," says Crago.

Bumper Action's web site spins an interesting yarn about owner Del Reiss traveling across the globe in a frantic search for the last available pinball tables to satisfy consumer demand.

Sunday's auction includes an Elvis pinball complete with a singing and dancing on-board King, World Cup themed machines, the last new Lord of the Rings table in Australia, and Data East's Guns and Roses pinball from 1994.

The film is described as a comedy about the lives of four hapless friends (and one obsessive interloper). It concentrates on a single day when they are about to break a world record for hours spent role-playing a game called DND, or Demons, Nymphs, and Dragons. The sacrifice, the obsession, the blind dedication...

The cast includes John Heard, Beverly D'Angelo, Kelly LeBrock and (Greatest American Hero) William Katt.

Check out a gushing review about the mockumentary here or watch the trailer for some giggles.

Screen Play spent most of yesterday cursing, stomping and trying really hard not to throw the Dual Shock at the wall. I was playing a kids game.

I'm the first to admit that I'm not the world's most skilful gamer. Fatal1ty can rest easy that I'm not going to threaten his shoot-'em-up crown. I still can't get all gold medals on Gran Turismo license tests, and I'm no longer the dominant force that I used to be on the Pro Evolution soccer pitch.

But there's something seriously wrong when I get stuck on a game like Micro Machines v4, unable to progress without cheating. Even on "easy" mode.

Telstra has launched an iTunes-style games download service offering a library of hundreds of titles.

The service is part of a growing push that could change the way Australians buy computer games, allowing customers to download products using broadband internet connections rather than purchasing discs at traditional retail stores.

BigPond Games Shop lets users try the games for 60 minutes before a purchase is required to continue playing.

The new venture will be run alongside Telstra's GameNow service, which was launched in April 2005 and lets users rent games by paying a monthly subscription fee.

Xbox chief Peter Moore seems to have changed his tune on the issue of over-complicated gaming controllers.

In an interview with Screen Play at E3, Moore dismissed the suggestion that Microsoft should consider their own motion-sensor controller and described the 360 joypad as "intuitive" and "more mass-market and familiar to a lot of people than it gets credit for".

But in a rountable interview posted by Gamertag Radio, Moore said the Nintendo Wii's controller was a step in the right direction for the industry.

"Shoulder buttons, triggers, analog sticks, d-pads, I mean, there's a lot going on there when you compare it to the old Atari 2600 button-and-stick, which everybody could pick up and have some fun with," Moore says.

"Clearly, I think that the Wii is trying to get back to those days, although when I picked it up, I was surprised how much stuff there is on there, and it took me a while even then to get going on those things."

In the process of setting up a new office/playroom in the Screen Play bunker, I've been trying to sort through a games collection bolstered to an embarrassingly large scale via a lifetime love of electronic games and 15 years of reviewing the latest releases.

Friends, family, neighbours and the local op shop will receive some of the spoils, but I've found it an interesting exercise contemplating what I am not willing to let go of.

I would certainly never part with my copy of Ocarina of Time signed by Shigsy himself, nor my Drum Mania kit imported from Japan, and surely not my noble Vectrex, even if it makes a disconcerting dog whistle-like squeal when you turn it on.

Games are now the product of enormous teams of designers, artists and programmers, but the best are often driven by a single gifted visionary: the Game God.

GameDaily has bemoaned the lack of new gaming deities to emerge in the past decade, blaming the gradual transformation of the development industry, which in 30 years has progressed from sole bedroom coders to faceless production lines.

Rather than come up with our own theories about why developers don't push their most talented stars into the media spotlight anymore, Screen Play thought it would be more fun to try and rank the world's best into a controversial Top 10.

Feel free to submit your own hero lists and chastise us for our omissions.

As if choosing between plasma or LCD wasn't hard enough, gamers will soon be offered the option of three-dimensional displays.

Philips has unveiled a new display that offers out-of-screen 3D effects without the need for special glasses or filters.

"3D-TV is the next frontier for those in the professional display market seeking differentiation to gain a competitive edge, and for consumers seeking the next level in the immersive entertainment experience," spruiks Jos Swillens, CEO of Philips 3D Solutions.

When the radical Nintendo DS game was first announced, Screen Play spoke to Nintendo President Satoru Iwata about the genesis of the project and Nintendo's philosophy behind widening the audience for interactive entertainment.

"We really do not want to limit the potential customers for Nintendo at all to the existing market," Mr Iwata says. "We really want to include so many current non-gamers, like female and senior audiences.

"Of course it is not very easy to approach senior audiences and say 'This is a game for you' - we really need something to interest them.

Sony's PlayStation 2 price cut to under $200 has lifted sales of the evergreen console dramatically.

Despite PlayStation 3's impending November release, Australians snapped up over 8500 PS2 consoles in the week ending June 4 according to GfK sales data, a jump of nearly 7500 units over the previous week.

By contrast, less than 500 Xbox consoles and under 250 GameCubes were sold.

However, Sony's competitors will be pleased with the sales of another 1600 Xbox 360 machines, bringing the 360's installed base to 55,000, and the debut of Nintendo's DS Lite handheld, which sold over 3500 units in its first week.

World Cup fever propelled EA's official FIFA simulation to the top of the latest all-format charts.

An attorney for the US Federal Trade Commission summed it up well when commenting "it's our belief that there was a duty to consumers to let them know about important content that was on the game".

The problem with Hot Coffee was not the content itself - the "dry humping" depicted was fairly innocuous stuff - but that consumers were not made aware of its existence.

Worse still, after negligently leaving the contentious content on San Andreas discs, Rockstar then sought to mislead the public by blaming hackers, perpetuating the view of many critics, parents and politicians that the video game industry cannot be trusted.

The risible Angel of Darkness seemed to have buried the Tomb Raider franchise forever, but Lara Croft has made a spectacular resurrection.

Tomb Raider: Legend has sold three million copies worldwide and reinstated the heroine as one of gaming's biggest icons.

In the UK, Legend is the fastest selling computer game of 2006, and the fastest selling Tomb Raider game in the Tomb Raider series, now comprising seven games. In Australia, Legend also debuted at the top of the charts and has sold strongly.

Legend is released today on PSP. To celebrate, Screen Play is publishing our complete interview with Lara creator Toby Gard conducted in March for this Livewire cover story.

Official games magazines have been a cash cow for publishers in the past decade, but their future now looks grim.

The main appeal of the official magazine is a cover-mounted disc containing playable demonstration versions and videos of the latest games, often before they have been released.

But online services like Xbox Live and the upcoming PlayStation Network allow gamers to download the latest demos for free, robbing the official magazines of their unique selling point and making the magazine's $15-plus price tag hard to swallow.

Compounding the challenge for magazine publishers is that they are already struggling to compete with free, abundant and up-to-date games coverage on the Internet.

Nintendo's moustachioed marvel Mario has entertained gamers for over 20 years.

Over 180 million Mario games have sold worldwide, making the series the best selling game franchise ever.

Mario has appeared in over 100 titles and with over $14 billion in sales, the portly plumber has earned more cash than Harrison Ford.

Mario first appeared in the arcade game Donkey Kong and was originally called Jumpman. He was later named after the landlord of a Nintendo building, Mario Segali, and his first official game was 1985's Super Mario Bros on NES.

Among Mario's vast library, his first romps through the mushroom kingdom remain the most fondly remembered. Nintendo is banking on this nostalgia with today's release of a new "hop 'n bop" platformer, New Super Mario Bros. for DS.

A new forum for the discussion and analysis of interactive entertainment is attracting a growing number of enthusiasts.

Held monthly at the Australian Games Innovation Centre in Queens Road, Melbourne, Dissecta is bringing together game makers, distributors, retailers, students and fans.

The next event, held on June 20, sees Australian developers discussing the recent Electronic Entertainment Expo and has already booked out.

Tim Richards, a lawyer with a passion for interactive games, organised the first Dissecta a year ago and attendances have been growing steadily.

"I really enjoy listening to people from the local game industry speak about what they do," says Mr Richards. "I thought I would do something grassroots and regular to promote ongoing discussion of the industry and game making issues."

Mr Richards's aim was to create an "open and accessible" forum for the games industry to share information and opinions while encouraging the audience to participate, "particularly young people and students".

The all formats chart for the week ending May 21 from GfK sees the long-awaited Metroid Prime Hunters for Nintendo DS debuting at the top spot, knocking off the Big Quiz, which has sold over 18,000 copies in Australia.*

Discounting has also served to radically alter the latest charts, with titles like the Crash-Spyro and Shrek-Madagascar double packs entering the Top 10.

The extremely popular Need for Speed Most Wanted has also made a reappearance, selling over 50,000 copies since its pre-Christmas release.

Despite a software drought, Microsoft will be pleased over 50,000 Xbox 360 consoles have now sold in Oz, with another 1800 flying out the door in a week.

While Hollywood and the games industry bicker about which high-definition disc format will replace DVD, online distribution of games is becoming increasingly mainstream.

Hundreds of thousands of Xbox 360 users are downloading Live Arcade titles, while blockbusters such as last week's Half-Life 2: Episode One are being released online before hitting retail shelves.

Upcoming consoles PlayStation 3 and Nintendo Wii both have the capability to download games from potentially vast libraries, while even PSP handheld owners will soon be able to download classic PSone titles.

Gamers have unexpectedly reacted with cynicism to Phil Harrison's comments that Sony did not steal Nintendo's idea for a motion-sensor controller.

But fascinatingly, Sony has actually held a patent for a wand-shaped motion detecting controller since 1999.

This design (pictured left) for a motion-sensitive controller was patented seven years ago, before PS2 was even released.

Of course, Microsoft also released a motion-sensitive controller in 1998 called the Sidewinder Freestyle, which was compatible with PC games like Motocross Madness.

Phil Harrison, Sony's head of worldwide studios, says Sony has been working on the innovation "for a long time" and combining motion sensors into a joypad that has enjoyed sales of 400 million provides a unique and "significant advantage" to PlayStation 3.

One of Australia's most respected veteran developers has launched a new company to help talented artists and programmers get their big break into the games industry.

David Giles, head of Melbourne's Academy of Interactive Entertainment and former director of development at Melbourne House, says Young Gunz lets local developers access AIE graduates as a temporary workforce when needed.

Video games are the new pop. Australians now spend more money on shooters and sims than hip hop and punk rock. Debate the latest news and trends in interactive entertainment with award-winning games writer Jason Hill.

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